Episode 28: The CR Get Tuff Story with Rick & Missie Plummer

The first time I ever got on him, I'm like, holy cow. Yeah. He moves around like a giant cat. I mean, I've never, I've had several world champions myself, been able to ride some fantastic horses over the years. I've never sat on anything that rides like that. Nothing. And I jumped out of the truck and I called Ty, said, hey, you know, if you see something come along, give me a ring. And he goes, why didn't you buy that woody horse, you dumbass? And I mean, you can walk through the pasture and go, that's a tough baby. He puts the neck and head on every one of them. He takes Woody's head and neck, puts on every one of those babies, and then puts his brain between their ears. I guarantee you there's going to be some tough babies in the winner's circle.

Hi, everyone. This is Melanie Smith with Solo Select. Today, we're here with a great set of guests. We've got Rick and Missy Plummer from Plummer Performance Horses. They're the owners of one of the young Woody studs that we have on the barn. His name is CR Get Tough. You guys have definitely seen him on our socials and seen the advertising on him. Many of you that have come here to see horses have left with even more appreciation for him. I think he's one of our favorites. When people come, they just love him. And you can't not love him when you see him, as we all know here. When we walk down the barn, I always tell people, you know, people breed to Woody to get Sea Argeta. That horse is like the picture of why people have loved Woody for his career.

And it's cool to have him in here as a young son of Woody and have him have all of that elegance that Woody brings to the table. I think that's the best way I can describe Woody with his head and his neck and his big, pretty eye. But also have so much structure and so much strength that, you know, we don't see. You know, a lot of times you get those really elegant horses, but you don't have all the structure. You get a really big, strong horse, and you don't have the pretty elegance. And I think CR Get Tough is the most perfect specimen in the world. Embodies all of that. And so today, I just want to talk to you guys a little bit about him. And I want people to hear his story and hear you guys' story of how you guys came into the business. I know I have people call me all the time that would love to be doing what you guys do, right? They have a set of mares.

They want to buy a stallion. They have really big ideas and dreams. And I think you guys' story is a really good one for them to hear, to know that those dreams are possible. And you guys are like right in the middle of it right now with this horse, like we're right in the grind with him. And so I'll let you guys tell us whoever wants to start a little bit about yourselves, where you're from and how, how you got into the horse business. We'll start with that. Well, I'm Rick Plummer. I'm from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, originally from California, started showing rope horses. We won't judge you for that. Yeah, that's okay. He could have left that one off. But I'm going to have to because I started showing in the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association.

She started showing rope horses in the 90s when nobody was showing rope horses. I mean, started jackpotting and then wanted something better about horsemanship and got in with the right people and things. And we started showing rope horses. And I'll never forget the first rope horse show I went to. I won a couple classes and did really well. And I'm up there thinking, man, I'm going to get this great big check and show up and go handing me some trinkets. I'm like, where's my check? You got like 15 points today. I don't want points. I want money. I didn't understand at the time. Now I would die for 15 points. Sure. And sold my company and moved. To Oklahoma, spent a lot of time here as a young person growing up.

And I met Missy and we got married and I had some horses. Missy had horses growing up as a kid. And then she was back in it full swing. And I had mares. Yeah. And we went to town. That's kind of who I am where I started to been team roping for well over 30 years. I've won several world championships in the amateurs on both sides of the box. And it's just been a lifelong passion for us. And is this the first stud you guys have had no we had uh yeah that's we we bought a stud that was uh he was an older stud zane bruce actually trained him and showed him for the guy that owns nrs, and we had him for a while he was an older stud we bought him to rope on because he was really cool to rope on we we never did we tried to breed him a few times but we never could get him to to take yeah and he was.

He was so lameness issues and yeah he we ended up having to have him put down yeah we had him for about three or four years that he was really really cool yeah really cool horse and so, tell me a little bit about how CR Get Tough came to light with you guys because I remember this horse as a young horse and we were we didn't own Woody then but we were huge Woody fans of course and so I remember this being such a big pretty young stud yes Brad had him but I'll let you guys tell the story. Well, we got into breeding and we were breeding to a playgun stallion when we first kind of got into it. We were playing with it. We had a few mares. We bought a pretty nice place in Arizona and that kind of took precedence. So.

We got rid of most of our mares, and we took a break from the breeding deal. And what year do you think this was? 2017. Okay. Well, we were breeding, and we started breeding in like 2013. Right. We went from 13 to 17, and then we bought the ranch out in Arizona in 17 to 20. We were out there, and we were doing more of the young horses, training, getting them going. We had a big—it was work. Yeah. It was a job. So we got rid of the babies and then we came back and, he bought a new place and we got more more land, and we had a better facility set up and missy that's her, i love to rope missy likes the babies that's kind of her gig sure and she said hey i want to i want to raise some babies and i said, well if we're going to do this let's go find a stallion and let's just we'll breed a few mares here at the house and i want to be able to rope on them a little and and just, Nothing like where we're at now. This was not in the original plan.

No. Let's just play around and have a good time, you know, and been in the business, you know, been showing horses and kind of know a lot of people and we were looking around. And so we went to the triangle sale and we had several studs in mind. Go ahead and tell them. Well, Missy had her heart set on a different stallion and I saw this stallion. Okay. Now this stallion had color. Yeah. Okay. And, you know, most women, you know, I mean, because I'm still, I'm not like they are, but I was still, I'm like, hey, if we get one that has color, and it was one-time Pepto. So I'm thinking, okay, that name's, you know, good. And so I thought we'd do that. And then Rick and my son, Ryan, they wanted the Woody. This is the one.

And she had her heart set on that one. So I'm like, hey, you know what? It's her deal. So this stallion toughy bid on friday and i watched him go through the ring and cried, and i didn't even know who bought him i'll save that for a minute and and away he went and actually i did i knew ty ty bought him yeah, and then the next day they run her stallion in and we run him up to the hive he was the high selling horse of the sale and finally Like she looked at me and goes, no, I, and I didn't feel he was worth that much. And I think he went to somebody in Nebraska or South Dakota or something. And everything works out for a reason. Well, that's what I was going to say. Everything works out. That's right. It does. I firmly believe in that.

She was a little dejected. She didn't get her, you know, her stallion bought. So. We all piled in the truck to go to the Texas Roadhouse around the corner for dinner. And I jumped out of the truck and I called Ty. I said, hey, you know, if you see something come along, give me a ring. And he goes, why didn't you buy that woody horse, you dumbass? Sounds just. Yes. And I've known Ty since he was showing horses, you know, because we go way back. And I explained to him, he says, tell you what, let me make a little bit and you can buy him. I said, are you serious? He goes, yeah. So I went inside, talked to the crew, and called Ty while I was sitting at the table and said, we want him. And he was in our yard at 6 o'clock the next morning. The next morning.

He was there. So that's kind of a crazy story how we ended up with Toph. And it was meant to be, and that's why he's here. And how old was he when you guys bought him? At five. Five. He came out of the January sale, so he just turned five. And that's, you know, I talked to Tate. Kirkenschlager the other day other day and he was like you know rick tough really didn't get a fair shake because if we had been able to have him as a two and three year old and get him ready to rope he said he would have dominated, and he did dominate in the show the little bit that he got to show he didn't get to show very much but i mean he i want to say he scored 30 or 30 points his first time that he qualified showing him he was amazing but i think that horse was cool too though because he i remember watching him in the cutting and he was really exceptional in the cutting and then you know brad went down the fence on him and then he'll roped on him and all of that and i think that horse could do a lot of things and that was.

I think we're seeing less and less of that now as we get you know it's 2026 we know what all these different things are paying the aqha shows aren't as big as they were even five years ago you know so that horse was kind of still when the aqha shows were still revved up and rolling but now we're seeing just as these horses get so much more specialized, we're seeing less and less of them, that we do get to see can they cut, can they go down the fence, and can they be a head horse, which takes a special horse. And this horse could do all of them. But I think like some of the studs I've had, by doing that and training those studs to do all three, then, you know, five years later, we don't have that really specialized horse, but we have one that was good-minded enough and big enough, which is a lot of the problem, as you guys know, to do it all. And I think that's what makes him special.

Well, and that's what I wanted to do with Tuff. Whenever I was talking to Rick about it, I said, okay, so we know he's already done the cutting. And so when we got Brad, let's see, it was in July. And he came down and we asked him if he'd try him out and see. And he goes, oh, yeah. He loved him. Oh, I'm sure. He loved him. He looks like a Brad whore. He goes, Rick, I'm not showing him until I ride him. I said, fine, come by the house. So it was right after the holiday circuit. July 4th. Yeah. And he rolled up and I remember him. Loping around my arena and you know that big signature Brad Lundgren he's looking at me like a kid cheesing on a candy bar you know, yeah oh yeah I'm taking him home yeah he just moved that horse moves around the the first time I ever got on him I'm like holy cow yeah he moves around like a giant cat I mean I've never I've had several world champions myself, been able to ride some fantastic horses over the years I've never sat on anything that rides like that nothing so versatile to be so big and so strong and so much in his stock and so controlled his feet, that's like Tay was saying.

He goes, I am, he's so excited because he's lined up to get, we got these babies coming. And he's like, he calls me all the time. Babies coming. They're coming. They're coming. He says, I can't wait to get my hands on some babies. So let's talk about a little bit. We haven't mentioned how he's bred exactly. Of course, he's by Woody, of course. And I think most people listening to this know about Woody. But the key thing about that is we, which I think is one thing that makes this horse special, is we don't see very many Woody studs. A lot of people ask me why. And center ranch raised this horse and it's out of or he's out of art caddy duel which is a mare that's produced a million two or so now she's a great mother great great he's got a phenomenal female family, but we didn't see very many woody studs because when center ranch had woody they gilded all the yearlings so when you went to the yearling cell they were all gildings and i think this horse was maybe the first year that they let anything get out of there that wasn't gilded and so there's not that many woody studs of his age or age group or even you know within that three years of his age group and so we haven't gotten to see like a lot of sons of woody as sires yet he's one of the older ones and so talking a little bit about babies on the ground now you guys, the oldest ones that we've got right now are two-year-olds he's coming through so let's talk a little bit about those and what you guys are doing with them well we started out like whenever they first come, our oldest ones are going to be three.

And we have, what, four of those? We had four. We had four, yes. And so we've got them in with a colt starter. He's doing a phenomenal job with them. So we are already sending, like I said, we're going to send one to Tate and then we're going to send one to DK. And so they'll start in. We have nine babies coming the next year that will be. And then we have 11 wean ones this year. And so we start our.

Everyone has a different, you know, view of what you do with your babies. We are hands-on. We imprint our babies when they're first born. I can't pick them up, but my husband and my son can. So we pick them up and we're just hands-on. We start them young. We handle them. They're desensitized. We start with their feet. We disengage hips. They can stand tight. Yeah. They trailer, they bathe. We do all of this stuff. And then when it's weaning time, we let them out and they get to be just how they are. And then when they come as yearlings, then that's when we start getting them back in the program, getting used to standing tied. They're on the walker. We have a free flow walker. So our babies, and I'll tell you this about Sierra Get Tufts. They want to work.

When it's time and they know it's the walker time, they are at the gates ready to go. And I mean, when they're on the walker, they are right there. I mean, they're moving and they're going, and they're so good-minded. Yeah. I have a lady, Stacy, that works for us, and she takes them after the weanlands. We do the weanlands. Lisa and I do. And then Stacy takes them, and she starts putting the saddles on them about this time, you know, in the fall, and getting them ready for Riley when he starts them in January. Yeah. And so you guys are going to be breeding probably, what, 10 a year to them yourselves, I would say, on average. We're going to bring in the mares that are out there showing now. With the faturities and we are going to do some flushing to get those babies on the ground.

And that way we can slowly start bringing our genetics to a higher level. Yeah, absolutely. And so let's talk a little bit about the incentives this horse is in. I'll let you guys talk a little bit about what all you've enrolled him in and why. Well, the first one we got him in was Riata Buckle, a good friend of mine. He sold us his slot his stallion died and he did us a good solid he knew we were. He knew that we were gonna do good things and he ropes and he's been showing horses for a long time and he knows that we're big financial supporters of the horse shows and that he appreciated that so I feel that was one of the reasons that we still talk all the time we're really good friends so we the Riata deal is, it's kind of the crossover in my opinion it.

There's a lot of guys that want to go to Riata Buckle that would never want to step into a Futurity ring or even a horse show deal. That's just not there. They're not interested in that. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But there's an awful lot of money to win in the Riata Buckle. There's some fantastic stallions in that incentive. And that just helps drive those babies' value in the market. And, I mean, think about it. you, you, you send one of those babies through that deal and somebody could win, you know, you won a couple hundred thousand in, in a week. That's pretty huge. That's a, that's a good incentive. Denny's done a, you know, he, he's been doing this a long time. He, he did a good deal there. And then we're in, you know, obviously we're in the solo incentive because we're big believers in the Futurity program and you guys and, and what you guys are doing and striving for.

And now this stuff all takes time. This stuff just doesn't happen overnight. It does take time. And the amount of energy and work and effort and money that everybody contributes to this because we all believe in what we're doing. Down the road, this is going to be huge. And as you well know, because you're here, the team roping industry has been shortchanged for years. The cutters had a good deal. The cow horse people had a good deal. The rainers had a good deal. So most team ropers, you know, Billy Bob in the backyard sort of mentality, you know, that's changed because there's been a lot of good horsemen in the team roping world. And the Futurity deal started off with a bunch of horse show guys.

And now you're starting to see a bunch of guys that are really fantastic horsemen. That rodeoed for a living, but we're not only could they rodeo, but they, they could ride a horse. And then you saw when a lot of those guys first started, they did pretty good, but they struggled. And then they kind of figured out, Hey, you know what? I need to stand this horse up a little bit more. I need to take an extra step. I need to drive those hips, you know, and I see all that coming. And, and I personally hope to see that our futurity deal even gets more refined that our, our judging and our, and our, you know, we come up with a good set of standards that we. Set that up to where this is exactly what we want. Everybody follows the same deal.

I think that'll really help the future program. We're so young and on our infancy at this point, but in 10 years, it's going to be a different ballgame. Completely. I mean, we're seeing it change year over year so much. And like I said, I think as we get more sophisticated, we've already heard a lot of talks of that this year of them trying to get some true like rule books that are set a set of standards for the judges to be able to judge off of and like you said we're just we have a lot of great people all working at the same goal I think of growing this across all whether you're talking about Riata Buckle Old West our incentives the horse trainers we've got great people working on it so we've got them in Riata and, the solo roping incentive but these oldest babies are two-year-olds and so as these babies starting to get three and four, you know, and get some more age on them, there'll be more incentives coming for these breeders. And so...

But I think with this horse, I tell everybody, I have a lot of people that call me about him. And I have a lot of people that call me and say, I need a breed to a big, pretty stud. Here he is. This is the one. And I always feel really confident when I tell people, if you come and see him, you're going to love him. We can only do so much in pictures and videos. But until you come and see that horse and you see his presence when he walks out. We had the lady from Australia here the other day, Tish, that is our agent over there. And she saw him walk out and I was like, that's an Australia horse, isn't it? And she was like, that's an Australia horse. Like, they will love this horse over there. And so a lot of our ranchers have been really interested in this horse because he does bring the really modern pedigree and the foot speed.

And kind of like what you said, when you get on him, he feels like a big cat, you know. And so that fits them to a tee, of course, and it's so hard to find that these days. And we're seeing more and more size get bred back into these studs and these mares, but it's still tough to find. You know, the last thing I'd really like to touch on today is about you guys coming into this and believing in this horse. And I think that's one thing, you know, I have an unknown number of people that call me and say, hey, I have a stud I want to stand. And when I start going through with them and say, you know, like the talks that I know I had with you guys and Ty had with you guys, it's like, hey, like this is going to take a long time.

Like you're not going to be one year in and be like, we're having the time of our lives yet. You know, it takes a while. And so for these people that are out here and, you know, grinding it out like you guys are and creating these stallions and these breeding programs, like what can you tell them. To kind of help them continue to move through the process? Because it is such a long process, I think. Be extremely selective. Don't just breed to breed. Pedigree. pedigree is huge and. The level that we're shooting for and then if you do find a stallion with all those attributes find one with a good mind yeah we feel like our stallion has i agree completely tough has athleticism size power strength, but his his mind is just phenomenal and he passes that on to every i mean we've we've we've bred close to 30 babies pretty close to 30 every one of them acts just like him. He stamps every one of his babies.

He takes those babies. And I mean, you can walk through the pasture and go, that's a tough baby. He puts the neck and head on every one of them. He takes Woody's head and neck, puts on every one of those babies and then puts his brain between their ears. They're personable. They're easy to train. That's the biggest thing. You could have the most athletic horse in the world, but if you can't train him, you can't show him. Yeah. And I think if people come and see that horse and see Dustin handle him and like, You know, you can obviously only tell so much when you're coming to look at a stallion, but you can tell a lot. And that horse walks out there flat-footed and stands quiet and lets everybody look at him and pet him.

We let our three-year-old granddaughter pet him. And I wouldn't even think twice. He's just throwing her on his back. And when he sees her, he just melts. Yeah. He loves her. And there's a difference between a stud that's just dull. That horse is not dull. You know, there's a difference in a horse that's dull and that is just kind and pure. And I think that's what that horse is is real kind and real pure and wants to be good and wants to do right and you know we are lucky to have a barn full of studs that I think are very good-minded in general you know they all have their strengths and their weaknesses but this horse when I walk somebody in a stall I always tell them like oh yeah you'll love this horse he's got a big pretty eye and he's kind and I think kind goes a long way with a lot of these horses and you talk about you know you roped.

You know, whether it's jackpot roping or showing in the amateur and all of that. And I tell people a lot of times, you know, there's not a lot of horses that have the ability for Tate or Brad to win on, but also have the mind that they can throttle it down some for an amateur to be able to get on and go rope on them that isn't, you know, roping on 15 head a day every single day. And so that horse to be able to fill both of those is, I think, says a lot about his mind and ability and the training, you know, we always have to go back and say, whoever trained them did a great job, right? And that's a lot of it too. But, but you got to have the right foundation to train one off of. And the other thing is, if you want to get into breeding business, you better have patience.

You better have patience. That's the key. Like, highlight that and put an exclamation point. Oh, my gosh. Patience and thick skin. Yep. Not everybody's going to love your horse. Yep. And nothing happens overnight. Yep. So you better be in it for the long haul. Yep. But I think, and as somebody that's a relatively young breeder, I'm just getting to start seeing the ones. We went through exactly what y'all are going through on Tic Tac, right? So bought a stud. He was a nice horse. We have to go and breed the right mares to him and do our part to make sure that he gets promoted. And to, you know, you say the wait is a long time and it seems like it was just yesterday, but also 20 years ago. And it wasn't 20 years ago. It was five years ago that we started on this with Tic Tac. But, you know, like you say, it feels like forever.

But to get to see those horses win now is something that like you can't recreate doing anything else in this world to know that you, you know came up with that and your idea was hopefully successful you have these babies on the ground that are winning and you believed in the stud and you believed in the mare and I think that's an experience you can't buy in the horse business you can go buy all the yearlings and twos and three-year-olds and it's still fun but it's different than breeding your own like what you guys are doing and if you're lazy find something else to do.

I'm here bright and early and you're here already. And you're here when the lights are off. If you're lazy... This is, this business isn't for you. We were, you know, six, seven days a week, sign up to way past sundown. You know, when somebody calls you, Hey, there's a, you know, there's a baby that's hung up or this or they're that, or you got to, you got to drop everything and go. So if it's not going to be their first priority, then you're way cheaper to go buy colts. Come to solo. There's a lot of colts, a lot of stallions. Come buy one. If that's what your end game is because it's way cheaper to do that. Yeah. But there's definitely nothing like having ones that you've raised. Well, exactly. Oh, yeah. There's nothing better than breeding one.

And I, I'm going to go out on a limb and I don't do that. I guarantee you there's going to be some tough babies in the winter circle. Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, I've ridden these two-year-olds. I've ridden, you know, been riding, I've rode my whole life. Yeah. And they are absolutely phenomenal. Yeah. The boy that's riding them, he goes, man, we need to be cow horse. And I said, no, we're rope horses. I know they can cow horse. He goes, let me take him to the cow horse. No. Yeah. He's going on a rope on them. Having said that, though, you know, when we first got tough and Brad came out there and he rode him, I wanted him, because I knew Woody did the cutting and did the things. I wanted Tuff to be able to do them all.

So we already knew he had been in the cutting. He already won a little bit of money in the cutting. So I asked Brad if he would do the working cow horse. So we took him to South Dakota. He obviously won the cutting, but he won money in all of it. Then we took him to Fort Worth. He won money there in that. And then we took him to the AQHA show. And his first time out, he qualified for the world. He dominated in his first year. Everybody was, who's that? Because he's an older, you know. Who's that? Who's that? Whose horse is that? I stand next to Jack Booger. Man, who owns that big, pretty sort of? That's our, what? That's your, oh my God, where did you get him? I said, well, you know, we just, we got him.

The only thing that didn't work for us is we couldn't breeding at the same time as showing. Yeah. We, we, we weren't, I wasn't smart enough on that. I wanted to both. Yeah. And we found out we're going to have to choose. Yeah. It's hard to haul those studs. And, you know, if you don't have the perfect setup right next to a trainer's house, it just is a logistical nightmare. Yes. I said, baby, I said, I get where you're coming from. I'm going to tell you, it's super hard to show and breed at the same time. Yeah. We can do it. Yeah. We can try. Yeah. But it's hard. Yeah. And we were showing and I was getting ready to, you know, I got him and we were getting ready to go to Oil Can Classic. I think we were getting ready to show it out there and we went to the breeding barn and they're like, what are you guys doing? Yeah, we need to, we need to, yeah.

So what are you doing? We need to change the game plan. So you know what? Live and learn. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's like we try. Well, now my vet told me, he said, hey, if you could get it in a climate controlled atmosphere, it would happen. So I asked my husband, I said, hey, do you think we can get one of those mini splits in there? We can get this all insulated up so we could do both. And it wasn't maybe a month after that that Ty and I were talking and he'd mentioned his deal. And he goes, man, I really like your stud. Yeah. And I said, well, we was trying to do this. He goes, well, I can take care of that climate. Yeah. He said, why don't you come down and look around? We came down and you guys were in the middle of construction and that's when the scheme started and it's like, oh man, we've been on the roller coaster ride. It's been great. And it's been great.

I mean, it's all good. Like I said, you better have some patience. You better have some patience. Well, thank you guys for coming on here today. And I think, you know, I hope people that are listening that are interested in this horse, the best thing I can tell you is to come see him. Because if you come see him, and there's a lot of studs that I think you see and you say like, oh, well, we have really good pictures of him, but don't come see him. Like this horse, come see him. You will love him. You'll love him more than you love his pictures. He's beautiful. And like you guys said, I think he's got a very bright future ahead. So for people that are listening in, if you guys want to know more about this horse, there's all kinds of information on our website about him.

You can get on, see his black type pedigree. All of his genetic testing, everything you could ever want is on there. And even better, you can give us a call and come see him. We're here seven days a week to show studs. And we've got our open house coming up that you guys will be at the weekend before Thanksgiving. Yes. So I know a lot of you that are listening and have RSVP'd for that. If you haven't, please go in and do that if you're planning to come. We're going to have a great day here. We've got some really cool speakers that are going to be talking about breeding mares and our veterinarian is going to be talking. We have Gene Tech coming to talk about ICSI. So it's going to be a great day. A lot of learning, a lot of getting to see some great stallions.

We'll have about 300 sail horses for people to look at. So there's going to be lots to do here on that Saturday in Gainesville. So thank you guys for coming on today. And hopefully we get to see a lot of these listeners at the open house. If not, hopefully they come by and we get to show them this great horse. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to talk with us about Tuff because we really think a lot. We're excited. We are too. Thanks guys. Thank you.